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Intro to Books about Feminism
Feminism is an ongoing struggle in modern society. As we progress and regress, the hope is that we can live in a world where men and women are provided equally with opportunities and not limited to subordinate roles due to their sex.
By the end of this blog post, you’ll have a better understanding of what feminism is and some books to read to help educate you on this constant struggle so your writing doesn’t suffer from blissfull ignorance.
“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.”
―
The History of Feminism
To define, feminism is the belief in equality for men and women politically, socially, and economically. Women have advocated for representation and a shift in justice for years.
In ancient Greece, women protested for equal rights in terms of possessing and using their currency, but they were denied. When the Constitution was being written, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, the president, to “remember the ladies,” or this government will surely see a rebellion.
Today, many laws that have improved equality are quickly being questioned and changed back. Feminism is an ongoing conversation, therefore it needs to continue to be advocated for and educated on.
First Wave of Feminism in America
According to feminist.com’s article “The History of Feminism,”
“Every advancement that women have made over the past nearly 250 years have been due in large part to feminist movements, which are generally categorized into waves as a helpful way to break down the historical eras.”
- 1839 Mississippi: passes Married Women’s Property Acts, expanding the rights of married women. This act allowed them to own personal property and wages, be parties to lawsuits and contracts, and execute wills on their own behalf.
- 1849 New York: the first women’s rights convention is held, aimed to give full gender equality at all levels economically, socially, and politically.
- 1866: National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) are now the two split, identifiable feminist organizations.
- 1890: women can travel on their own without a chaperone.
- 1896: National Association of Colored Women (NACWC) is founded by Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Harriet Tubman, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.
- 1916: National Woman’s Party (NWP) is formed.
- 1920: Many women are granted the right to vote through the ratified 19th Amendment. To note, it will take 45 more years for the vast majority of Black women to be fully granted this right with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
- 1920: The Women’s Bureau is established in the U.S. Department of Labor.
- 1945: After WWII, 1/4 married women were working outside of the home (37% of the workforce).
- 1945: Women are granted the right to serve as permanent members of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps through President Truman’s Women’s Armed Services Integration Act.
- 1950: Harvard started accepting female students.
“Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings.”
―
Second Wave of Feminism
The second wave occurred from the 1960s to the 1980s.
- 1960: FDA approves birth control.
- 1963: President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, prohibiting employment discrimination based on sex.
- 1964: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, is created to outlaw employment discrimination based on race and sex.
- 1965: The Voting Rights Act is passed to eliminate discrimination in voting based on race.
- 1965: Married couples are allowed the right to use contraception.
- 1968: Fair Housing Act is passed by President Johnson, outlawing housing discrimination.
- 1969: California enacts No Fault Divorce Law, allowing women to leave abusive or unsatisfactory marriages without having to prove it in court.
- 1973: Roe v. Wade allowed the freedom for women to have abortions nationwide.
- 1974: Gerald Ford signs the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, finally giving women financial autonomy.
- 1978: President Carter signs the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
Third Wave of Feminism
- 1990: The Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) is established to advance research on women’s health.
- 1993: The Federal Sexual Abuse Act is enacted to criminalize marital rape.
- 1993: Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act, allowing twelve weeks of leave after giving birth, or to care for your own or others’ health.
- 1993: To ensure that women/minorities are included in all clinical NIH-funded medical research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Revitalization Act is signed into law.
- 1994: The Violence Against Women Act is passed by Clinton.
Fourth Wave of Feminism
- 2014: #SayHerName campaign happened to uplift stories of victims, black women and girls, of police brutality.
- 2015: After Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court legalized same sex marriage in all 50 states.
- 2017: The Women’s March occurred; more than 500,000 people marched in D.C. to protest Trump’s discriminatory attempts.
- 2017: The #MeToo movement occurred, allowing sexual victims the voice to finally speak up against their abusers, normally powerful men in society, and past trauma.
- 2017: Women outnumbered men in Medical schools.
- 2019: Women are granted the Fairness for Breastfeeding Mothers Act, which requires public restrooms to include a lactation room.
Feminist Literary Theory
To start, the advocacy for feminism has helped bring this conversation in the literary world. Feminist literary theory is critically looking at literature in terms of how they represent women and why. This theory in practice is a great way to study how the view for women’s equality has changed over the centuries.
According to Her Conversation’s article “What Is Feminist Literary Theory? A Comprehensive Overview,“
this theory is used to
“examine gendered language, to question the presence of patriarchal norms in the literary canon, and to promote the voices of the previously underrepresented in literature.”
By doing so, we are able to expose cultural prejudice and also advocate for inclusion.
Find more ways to help you dissect your reading like a true writer in this blog post.
Feminist Authors
During the first wave of feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf were heavily influential activists in their writing. Their critiques exposed the absence of female perspectives and characters in most literary works, bringing this issue into the public sphere.
The second wave of feminism had such authors as Simone de Beauvoir and Kate Millet to pioneer for equality. They critiqued how social discrimination in turn affects academic accomplishments and views of academics based on gender or race.
Additionally, gynocriticism, an approach to only study and analyze works written by women, gained prominence through Elaine Showalter and grew more mainstream.
By looking at novels through a feminist perspective, we can:
Recognize how narrative structure is impacted by power and gender
Analyze marginalized characters in the text and their roles
Have conversations around the issues of motherhood, labor, or patriarchy.
Books about Feminism
Now, take a look at the selection below of feminist books. These stories advocate for equal rights and help educate us on the necessity of this idea finally coming into fruition socially, economically, and politically. If this topic seems foreign to you, these books are the perfect jumping-off point to get the conversation started.
“Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.”
― A Room of One’s Own
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
According to Britannica’s article “The Second Sex,” this novel is
“a scholarly and passionate critique of societal views on women, challenging the concept of an “eternal feminine”.
Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by Bell Hooks
What is feminism? In this short, accessible primer, bell hooks explores the nature of feminism and its positive promise to eliminate sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression. With her characteristic clarity and directness, hooks encourages readers to see how feminism can touch and change their lives-to see that feminism is for everybody.
Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny by Kate Manne
The Beauty Myth : How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women by Naomi Wolf
Alongside the evident progress of the women’s movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It’s the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society’s impossible definition of “the flawless beauty.”
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
When Women Ruled the World : Six Queens of Egypt by Kara Cooney
Regularly, repeatedly, and with impunity, queens like Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Cleopatra controlled the totalitarian state as power-brokers and rulers. But throughout human history, women in positions of power were more often used as political pawns in male-dominated societies. Why did ancient Egypt provide women this kind of access to the highest political office?
Men Who Hate Women : From Incels to Pickup Artists: The Truth about Extreme Misogyny and How It Affects Us All by Laura Bates
In this thought-provoking and meticulously researched book, Bates fearlessly uncovers the dark underbelly of a deeply entrenched issue, shining a spotlight on the various manifestations of misogyny that continue to harm women worldwide. With razor-sharp insight, she navigates the complex web of toxic masculinity, gender biases, and harmful stereotypes that reinforce damaging attitudes toward women.
How to Think Like a Woman : Four Women Philosophers Who Taught Me How to Love the Life of the Mind by Regan Penaluna
In How to Think Like a Woman, Regan Penaluna blends memoir, biography, and criticism to tell the stories of these four women, weaving throughout an alternative history of philosophy as well as her own search for love and truth. Funny, honest, and wickedly intelligent, this is a moving meditation on what philosophy could look like if women were treated equally.
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan and Gail Collins and Anna Quindlen
Sister Outsider : Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde and Cheryl Clarke
All About Love by Bell Hooks
On Freedom by by Timothy Snyder
Drawing on the work of philosophers and political dissidents, conversations with contemporary thinkers, and his own experiences coming of age in a time of American exceptionalism, Snyder identifies the practices and attitudes–the habits of mind–that will allow us to design a government in which we and future generations can flourish. We come to appreciate the importance of traditions but also the role of institutions. Intimate yet ambitious, this book helps forge a new consensus rooted in a politics of abundance, generosity, and grace.
Hood Feminism : Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with incisive commentary on reproductive rights, politics, pop culture, the stigma of mental health, and more, Hood Feminism delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux. An unforgettable debut, Kendall has written a ferocious clarion call to all would-be feminists to live out the true mandate of the movement in thought and in deed.
The Portable Feminist Reader by Roxane Gay
A feminist canon represents a long history of feminist scholarship, embraces skepticism, and invites robust discussion and debate. Selected writings by ancient, historic, and more recent feminist voices include Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, Anna Julia Cooper, Kimberl Crenshaw, Dorothy Allison, Leslie Feinberg, Eileen Myles, Mona Eltahawy, bell hooks, Sara Ahmed, Cherr e Moraga, Audre Lorde, The Guerrilla Girls, and many more.
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development to health care to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this insidious bias: in time, in money, and often with their lives.
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”
–Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Conclusion
Today, we are seeing how history isn’t linear; it progresses and regresses. Feminism isn’t a new idea, its a protest against a patriarchal system that deems some lives more important than others. We all belong to the same race: the human race.
These hard issues start with reading, informed analysis, and impactful conversations among peers, friends, and family. Educate yourself and continue to question the norms of your society and who benefits from them. Create your own ideal society in your next story and always keep reading!
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